May be of interest.
Climate change is forcing nearly half of young Africans to rethink their plans to have children someday, a global poll conducted by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed, underlining their uncertainty about the future of a planet in crisis. [*see note below]
Young people reconsidering parenthood due to climate change, UNICEF poll reveals | | 1UN News
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/11/1130377
HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data
Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com
[*Note from NPW, moderator: Thanks Richard. Indeed the subline for the article says: "Climate change is forcing nearly half of young Africans to rethink their plans to have children". However, this is misleading. It cannot be inferred that nearly half of all Africans are rethinking plans to have children on the basis of the research. The article is based on a UNICEF global poll that atrracted responses from 243,000 people in 163 countries (the number of respondents from Africa is not provided). The results show that nearly half of Africans *who responded to the poll* reported that they are rethinking plans to have children. These respondents are self-selected and unlikely to be representative of the whole African population. Nevertheless, the research raises an important related question: To what extent do people in *any country* truly understand the potential health impact of climate change. And, for those in countries that are already iimpacted by climate change, what percentage understand the social injustice whereby high-income countries have largely created the crisis whereas LMICs disproportionately bear the consequences? Reliable information about climate change is an important part of the information that every person needs to protect their own health and the health of others.]
